Ironically, I first met Sunila in a white van, long before its usage became more sinister. It was 2001. We were en route to the airport. As a new researcher and coming from a family disconnected from Colombo’s concentric activist circles, I had only read and heard about Sunila before and was unsure how to […]

Speech I wrote for the opening of the Open Edit art project in Jaffna, on 15th March 2013. Since I was away from Sri Lanka, this was delivered by renowned Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatta. ### I am sorry I cannot be with you in person today. Even as I write these words down, I […]

I was recently contacted by a journalist from one of the leading Sunday newspapers in Sri Lanka on the growing anti-Muslim hate campaigns in Sri Lanka. The journalist asked two questions (reproduced verbatim), Anti-Muslim/Anti-Buddhist sentiments are being spread around effectively by social media, how do you analyse this? How can social media be used to […]

Launch of Republic at 40 website Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Launch of Republic at 40 website 18 January 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is pleased to announce the launch of a website complementing the print edition of The Sri Lankan Republic at 40: Reflections on […]

The devastating impeachment of the Chief Justice in Sri Lanka | Groundviews Update View this email in your browser The devastating impeachment of the Chief Justice in Sri Lanka By Groundviews Groundviews interviewed Asanga Welikala, a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives (the institutional anchor of Groundviews) on the unprecedented constitutional crisis that […]

Your columnist cannot draw. Over 30 years ago he was taught by his grandmother to draw a seascape, with coconut trees, the odd bird and sand, which is about the only thing charcoal, pastels, pencil or watercolours in hand can generate to date. There is also the enduring gap between what in his mind distinctly […]

In an article published in Life Times some issues ago, your writer attempted to debunk the notion that art was a rarefied domain of production and appreciation, and ended by saying that “Art is… far more than a few make it out to be. To discover art is really, to discover oneself”. A few weeks […]

A video I did many moons ago for Insight on Conflict has finally surfaced in the form of a blog post by Nilanjana Premaratna, who is Insight on Conflict’s local correspondent, that looks at the threats to human rights activists and the freedom of expression in Sri Lanka. As noted in the post, Sanjana comments […]

There is in Sri Lanka an Information and Communications Technology Agency. There are also Ministries of Science and Technology, Mass Media and Information, Telecommunication and Information Technology and incredibly, Technology and Research. In addition, we have the Department of Government Information. Finally, there is a National Science and Technology Commission. The combined financial and human […]